Tips for Changing Web Hosts

Moving from one host to another is both exciting and daunting at the same time. While you’re likely moving to a new host because they have a better plan which offers your more performance, better features, increased stability, and the price that fits your budget there are a few critical steps you should remember to avoid causing yourself unnecessary headaches.

#1 Choose Your New Host Carefully

There’s nothing worse than purchasing hosting, getting things moved over, and then realizing that this new host doesn’t offer you the features you need for your website. Some of you are probably sighing right now, you’ve been there, it’s probably the one of the most frustrating experiences you can imagine. So before you move your website make a checklist of what your current website uses and make sure there are solutions for all of those features on your new host. Some areas which often are forgotten are database access and scripting options. If your website uses these functions be sure that your new host will also allow you to use them or at least have a plan in place for how you are going to adjust your current website to fit the new hosts system.

#2 Do Not Cancel Your Old Account In Haste

If anything goes wrong you want to have that old site as a backup. If your website is big there’s a really good chance that you’ve forgotten to move or copy something or perhaps you just can’t remember exactly how things were setup. Either way, unless there’s some extreme reason to cancel your old host before things are fully up and tested on your new host don’t. If you can afford to leave the old host alive for a month it wouldn’t be a bad decision. That should give you time to find all the bugs and problems with the move. Naturally if things go well you’ll never need the old host, but you’re much better off safe than sorry.

#3 Update DNS Records

Your DNS records “tell the internet” where it can find your website. When you move hosts these records need to be updated with the new hosts “Name Server” information. You should ask your new host what name servers you should use to update your DNS Records. You will need to use this info wherever your domain name is managed (likely where you registered it originally) so that people trying to connect to your domain name will reach your new site at the new host. If you are lucky your host will have its own name servers and also be a registrar – this will make management easy down the road (see #5). If they aren’t a registrar and you don’t update this information properly your website will be inaccessible to the rest of the world.

#4 Alert Your Users Early

If your site has a lot of traffic, and especially if you have customers who use the site on a regular basis be sure to let them know a few weeks in advance that the move is coming. While a website is moved it sometimes takes a while for the new information to propagate throughout the internet. What this means is that for up to 2 days you may have some people unable to reach your website. In many cases the change will occur in a near seamless manner, but you really need to let your users know that they may not be able to reach the site for up to 48 hours after the move.

#5 Domain Name Registrar Changes

These days many hosts offer domain name registration and are themselves registrars. This is great for you as you can manage all your website needs in one place. If you’re going to move your domain name from your old registrar to your new host be aware that this could take a few days. The transfer is generally seamless, but you may have to wait and or go through a few steps to get things done. It will be necessary to get your authorization code from your old registrar for the domain name you wish to move. This will be needed on your new hosts site for you to begin the transfer. After requesting the transfer you’ll also need to have access to the email address you signed up for the domain name with. That email address will be getting an email asking whether or not you wish to allow the transfer to occur. You’ll need to click a link in it to allow this to happen or the transfer will fail.

#6 I’m Changing Domain Names

This is probably the worst thing you can do if you have a large base of users. If you have to change domain names you are going to lose some visitors – there’s not much you can do about it. Again try to prepare for this by setting up the new site early and alerting users to update their bookmarks with the new site’s address. You can try to do a forward or leave a page where users can click a link and be sent to your new site, but you will still lose some former users. This can also hurt your rankings in the search engines as you’re going to be more or less starting from scratch. If you can avoid doing this it is highly recommended.

#7 Test Everything Twice

Once you’ve managed to move everything over to the new site be sure to test EVERYTHING. Again for emphasis, TEST EVERYTHING. Chances are something is hard-coded to the wrong IP or some script is not in the right directory and a part of your website isn’t going to work properly until you update it. Taking time to go through and find the bugs before your users have to is critical to ensuring you don’t lose users from the move. Once you’re sure everything is ready to go sit back and enjoy your new host!

Finding the best free webhosting

Finding the best free webhosting service for your website may not be as simple as you think in fact  it could be quite complex. There are so many companies a nearly endless choice all clamoring to be the top of the hosts in the best free webhosting service arena and this could make it nearly impossible for webmasters to sort fact from fiction.

 

The most effective way to decide on a best free web hosting service is to choose the selection process one step at a time. The following are some steps that you need to look at and consider carefully when choosing the right host for your site: 

 

Evaluate Your Needs 

The very first point to address in deciding on the best free web hosting service for your needs is to really distinguish what those needs are. What kind of website are you looking to host? Small personal homepages will have a very different hosting criteria from a large company website. To determine the best hosting service for you, it is crucial to ascertain precisely what you plan to host now, and ideally take into consideration anything you are planning to host in the immediate future. Whilst you can always move your website when it grows at a later date, it can be  time consuming and costly. So do think ahead. Where do you want to take your site?

 

Rate should not be a top influencing factor until you have narrowed down a list based on other criteria such as: 

 

Reliability and Speed 

The best free web hosting services will offer uptime of over 99%. This ought to be a guarantee to motivate the company to keep all servers up all the time. Naturally, all visitors had better be able to access your site speedily. Depending on the type of website you are looking to host this could be more of an issue. If you have a site with a lot of pictures/images this will affect the speed of loading your site to the web.

 

Data Transfer and Disk Space 

Bandwidth demands develop with your site. Web hosting companies pay for bandwidth, be sure you have an appropriate amount of disk space reserved. Most websites need less than 3GB. But again if you find you need more in the future you may find yourself looking for another hosting company to accommodate your new circumstances. 

 

Technical Support 

It is really crucial to be able to contact the hosting company if your website begins undergoing problems. The best free web hosting support one can hope for is accessible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Virtually all companies know this, so take their declared hours with a pinch of salt. Always spot check the companies with emails at indiscriminate times to see if they actually have somebody available to help 24/7. 

 

Scripts and Special Features 

Various websites have different needs, and the best free web hosting service for you ought to accommodate those needs. Email addresses should be standard as well as the capability for an assortment of scripts. Make certain to see if additional features like shopping carts and secure servers are available as standard. 

 

 

Control Panel 

How much control does the hosting company offer webmasters? You do not want to have to go through customer service all the time for simple tasks such as change a password or to alter an email address. Make certain hosting companies provide some form of a control panel accompanying hosting.

 

Don’t stop at price, and if you plan on using your website in a professional capacity, it is crucial to move beyond free web hosting. Free hosts are great for small family or fun sites, but are not suited to the needs of interenet marketers - even those just starting out.

Domain Name Hosting Privacy

Did you know that when you register a domain name your personal information is made public.  Imagine your home address and phone number being listed on the World Wide Web for all to see, all over the world!

ICANN

What is ICANN ? The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable.  They require domain name providers to make your contact information public in order to resolve technical problems quickly, to enforce consumer protection, trademark violations or enforcement of other laws.  The information is also used to validate requests to transfer a domain name registration to another registrar company.  For instance, you register your domain name with company ‘x’ and after five years, you decide to transfer to company ‘y’.  Here is how your information can be used:

• Businesses or individuals who are interested in obtaining an already registered domain name can use the information to determine when the domain name expires.
• Law enforcement agencies can use the information to investigate illegal activities on the Internet. 
• Intellectual property rights holders can use the personal information to contact those in violation of intellectual property rights such as trademark infringement. 
• Disgruntled customers could use the information to call you at home or perhaps, drive to your house.
• Agencies can use the information to send you junk mail. 

How much of your information is made public?

Among the information included in the search results is

• Name, address, phone number and email address
• Date domain was registered.
• Date that the domain name will expire.
• Host name and IP addresses.

If you already have a domain name, you can search the WHOIS database to see what data is visible to all Internet users.  To search the WHOIS database, enter the web address you wish to search at www.markmonitor.com (look for the search WHOIS box). 

What can you do to protect your private information?

It is possible to register a domain in the name of a third party, as long as they agree to accept responsibility — ask your registrar for further details.  You are strongly encouraged to use this option to keep your information from being exposed 24/7!

Why You Should Buy an Existing Domain Name

When the time is right to set up your own business one of the first thoughts likely to go through your mind is to buy a domain name and get your website established on the internet. However much you may enjoying daydreaming about possible names for your website and checking their availability, its worth knowing that there is another interesting option open to you and this is to simply buy an existing domain name.

It is only natural that you will want to design a website to accurately reflect your business and to show potential customers exactly what you have on offer. On this basis you will probably not be interested in the thought of buying an existing site. However, there are distinct advantages to buying an existing domain name which may well be available to you at a price which is little more than the amount you will pay for a completely fresh name.

One of the main advantages is that there will already be traffic flowing to this website. The actual amount of traffic being directed is likely to vary depending on how much effort the previous owner has put into promoting the website, but it is worth bearing in mind that a little traffic is better than none, which would certainly be the case in the zero number of visitors delivered to a newly named website.

From a search engine optimization point of view you are likely to find that the previous owner has spent at least a little time optimizing their domain name portfolio. Some business owners put in a great amount effort to target key words and make sure their domain name gets listed. If this work has already been carried out previously you will be able to capitalize on this and spend more time doing what you need to do by way of personalizing and enhancing your website.

You will find that the era of short and catchy keyword rich domain names is well and truly over and although it is not totally impossible to find an unregistered domain name of this nature, it will prove to be a difficult task. However, many of the people who previously registered these domain names years ago, did this purely on an investment basis and you will discover, therefore, that many of them are now willing to sell.

Selecting the best domain name for your internet based business usually proves to be an interesting yet challenging experience, but if you take a little time to research the existing domain names available to buy, you may well find a great bargain and get your business off to a flying start.

First Steps to a Successful Web Hosting Business

What should not be forgotten is that web hosting is a business like any other; requiring the entrepreneurs to follow subsequent business ethics and practices. The number of Web Hosting business may have saturated the industry, however few have attained success. This is mainly caused by the overall attitude that a Web Hosting business is an opportunity to make a quick buck. No successful business has ever been an opportunity to make a quick buck.

Moving on, the brand strategy relies on the steps you take to stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition. We shall leave this aspect of the business to you.

The services you choose however, relies completely on your service provider. The make or brake factor relies on the service provider you choose. The first step to choosing your service provider is that you must always look for the service provider that actually develops and maintains the services and products. Registrars are at the top on the chain. Registrars provide services to resellers who either serve registrants directly or resell these services to other resellers. Business sense dictates that Registrars are the sensible choice. Singing up with Registrars means drastic cut down on support time, increased reliability and most importantly premium services.

Even before you select your service provider, there are couple of things that you should consider:

• Check the efficiency of the customer support team of the service provider, in terms of how fast they respond to your query and issues. They are reachable at any point of time. To check this, you should call at odd hours and see if they easily available to listen to your queries or issues.
• How reliable are the service providers. You will have to check since how long they have been in the industry. There are many good companies which provide a certain amount of uptime depending upon which offer you have chosen. For example: They may offer an uptime of 95% for say $8 and 99% uptime for $12. It is better to pay more money than have any problem. 
• Check the control panel as it is the integral part, wherein you can control the functioning of the website. With a proper control panel, you can password protect directories, prevent image hotlinking, block certain IP addresses from coming to your site.
• Check out the storage capacity of the server. If you will be loading the website with heavy files then you will have to check the limitation.
• Check the bandwidth. There are packages which allow you to upgrade if you want to.
• Check the statistics of your website. This will help you understand, which keywords were used to come to your website, the browser types, from which company the visitors are from, which page they have visited the most on your website, etc. With good statistical analysis programs, you should also be able to view Raw Access Logs for your Site, Disk Usage, Bandwidth Usage, Web Traffic Statistics, Error Logs and visitors demographics.
• Email is an integral part of running a website. You will have to be expert in creating email adresses. Auto Responder, POP3 and Mail Forwarding is a must.  It is not all that difficult if you have the rest of the tools. See to it that you have full control over your email hosting or you will have to be dependent on the service provider.
• Check how much you will be paying each month. There are web hosting packages that range from $4.95 to $9.95 per month, which would satisfy the basic necessities. There are websites which give out offers throughout the year. Consider & understand all the features offered by the service provider and choose a good package irrespective of the cost. If you plan to go for a freewebhosting provider, than I would say it is not a good idea. There are many issues when it comes to free web hosting service providers, in terms of availability, service, and bandwidth. And there are these pop under ads that keep popping up, each time somebody visits your website. Hence it is advised that you should not compromise on the quality for some meager amount.
• If you are looking for advanced hosting features then check out for MySQL and phpMyAdmin, PostgreSQL and phpPgAdmin, PHP, Perl, CGI, Python and Tomcat. If you are just entering the world of web hosting, I would suggest that you don’t look for these advanced features.

A few simple but essential decisive factors that dictate the success of your Web Hosting business.